For the month of September...

Best Film of the Month: Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

Worst Film of the Month: Stargate

September 29, 2007

Across the Universe (2007)
Director: Julie Taymor
Writers: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, and Julie Taymor
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, and Joe Anderson
Co-Starring: Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther McCoy, and T.V. Carpio
Description: An original musical film, Across The Universe is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and animation, the film is paired with many songs by The Beatles that defined the time.
Rating: A-
In a word... lovely.

September 29, 2007

Hannibal (2001)
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Thomas Harris, David Mamet, and Steven Zaillian
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, and Gary Oldman
Co-Starring: Ray Liotta, Frankie Faison, and Giancarlo Giannini
Description: After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he is discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns back to America to once again make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI official/rival as well as the media. Meanwhile, Hannibal must survive the advances by a disfigured and vengeful victim he first came in contact with years ago as a patient. He finds himself being tracked down not only by his wealthy victim and his henchmen but also by Agent Starling and the American authorities.
Rating: C
In a word... disappointing.

September 28, 2007

Vice Versa (1948)
Director: Peter Ustinov
Writers: F. Anstey and Peter Ustinov
Starring: Roger Livesey, Kay Walsh, and Petula Clark
Co-Starring: David Hutcheson, Anthony Newley, and James Robertson Justice
Description: Businessman Paul Bultitude is sending his son Dick to a boarding school. While holding a magic stone from India, he wishes that he could be young again. His wish is immediately fulfiled and the two change bodies with each other. Mr Bultitude becomes a school boy who smokes cigars and has a very conservative view on child upbringing, while his son Dick becomes a gentleman who spends his time drinking lemonade and arranging children's parties.
Rating: B
In a word... strange.

Note: I couldn't find an original movie poster, so I used the DVD cover.

September 22, 2007

Some Like It Hot (1959)*
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Robert Thoeren, Michael Logan, Billy Wilder, and I.A.L. Diamond
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon
Co-Starring: George Raft, Pat O'Brien, and Joe E. Brown
Description: Joe, the saxophone player, is Josephine in the all girls band that he joined with Jerry, the bass violin player, to be one step ahead of the mob after witnessing the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. After a train ride that sets a record for number of people in an upper berth, they are In Miami. Joe decides to be the man of Sugar Kane's dreams and invites her out to a yacht he doesn't have. But he can use Osgood Fielding's yacht if Jerry -- as Daphne -- will keep Osgood dancing. The pace gets even giddier when the Chicago mob arrives in Miami for a convention.
Rating: A+
In a word... hot!
Note: I saw this on the big screen at the coolest theater ever. Visit it here.

September 13, 2007

Unbreakable (2000)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson
Co-Starring: Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, and Eamonn Walker
Description: Security Guard David Dunn miraculously survives a catastrophic train crash outside Philadelphia. Not only is he the sole survivor out of 132 passengers, he also is completely unharmed. A little later, comic book specialist Elijah Price contacts him to confront David with an incredible theory: Elijah, who has been nicknamed "Mr. Glass" due to his more than fragile bones, thinks that David has got all which he himself lacks. The two of them "seem to be linked by a curve, but sitting on opposite ends". First, David does not believe the strange man, but every single thing he had said proves to be true: David has never ever been hurt or sick in his life, his physical strength is larger than normal and he has a skill which others don't. Slowly, David begins to discover the shocking truth behind Mr. Price's assumptions. But after all, David's fate is not only to find his real place in the world. It also is about proving Elijah's theory of his own existence.
Rating: B+
In a word... subtle.
Note: I watched this in English, to compare with the classic epic poem, Beowulf.

September 9, 2007

Needful Things (1993)
Director: Fraser Clark Heston
Writers: W.D. Richter and Stephen King
Starring: Ed Harris, Max Von Sydow, and Bonny Bedelia
Co-Starring: Amanda Plummer, J.T. Walsh, and Ray McKinon
Description: Leland Gaunt comes to Sheriff Alan Pangborn's pleasant little New England town, and opens a store. What this kindly Satan sells is whatever you need, from a surcease from pain to an object which you have always coveted. The Faustian price is, of course, corruption, and soon the poor sheriff's town is wracked by jealousy, spite, and violence.
Rating: B
In a word... unsubtle.